[1][2] After graduating from high school at Apostelgymnasium (1943) and then doing military service and being a prisoner of war, Elmar Hillebrand studied from 1946 to 1950 at the Düsseldorf Art Academy with Joseph Enseling and as a master student with Ewald Mataré, Joseph Beuys, among others.
After studying at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris with Ossip Zadkine as well as stays abroad and trips (including to Algeria ), he exhibited his own work for the first time in 1952.
[5] Hillebrand created a large number of works that were visibly displayed in public spaces, including the statue in the lobby of the UN City of Vienna as well as statues in churches and in various public places in Europe.
His involvement in the reconstruction of the Romanesque church buildings in Cologne, where he worked closely with architects such as Hans Schilling [de] and Gottfried Böhm, was also formative for his work.
[2] What was important for Hillebrand was the collegial cooperation with artist colleagues from the Cologne School such as Theo Heiermann, Jochem Pechau, Hans Karl Burgeff, Karl Matthäus Winter, Klaus Balke and others.